This blog continues the discussion that we began with Epic Journey: The 2008 Elections and American Politics (Rowman and Littlefield, 2009) and continue in After Hope and Change: The 2012 Elections and American Politics (Rowman and Littlefield, 2013).Building on these books, this blog offers insights, analysis, and facts about recent events.

There’s a simple reason for that, party officials say: no matter how well Turner is doing, the national Republican Party brand simply isn’t so hot in New York City. A Siena Research Institute poll out Friday showed just 30 percent of the district’s voters expressing a favorable view of House Speaker John Boehner.

The party successfully navigated similar conundrums last year in Brown’s race for Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts Senate seat and later in the race for a vacant Hawaii congressional district, when party operatives quietly funneled money and offered strategic advice to Charles Djou.